


and let the flowers grow

by Reishiin



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen, ShunYuuto fanfic drive, don't forget to egao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 21:43:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5264756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reishiin/pseuds/Reishiin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shun and Yuuto, through the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and let the flowers grow

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: under a cherry blossom tree. Written for the [ShunYuuto fanfic drive](http://the-dark-rebels.tumblr.com/post/132839867351/shunyuto-fanfic-drive) on Tumblr

 

 

* * *

 

 

Shun is twelve, and Ruri tells him that the boy who lives down the street wants to challenge him to a duel. Yuuto is ten, just breaking in his first starter deck. They arrange to meet under the cherry blossom tree in the park near both their houses. The cold days are starting to shade into spring, and all over Heartland City, the first flowers are just beginning to bloom.

Shun wins, because he's older and he's been dueling longer. Yuuto's expression is serious for a while like he's trying not to cry, but then he seems to resolve something within himself. He smiles and shakes Shun’s hand and says, "I always wanted to see your strength."

A wind goes by then, shaking the first flowers from the trees. Shun leans over the game mat to pick the petals out of Yuuto's hair, and thinks then that he will always want to protect that smile.

 

 

 

Shun is thirteen, and every day after school he goes to the Solid Vision arena behind the tennis courts to watch Yuuto duel. Yuuto uses a Knight archetype now, with some dragon cards thrown in for support, and he’s dueling as much as he can to get his win ratio up and qualify for the World Duel Carnival preliminaries. They’re almost evenly matched now—Shun was surprised by how fast Yuuto improved, but the boy had just smiled and said “I have to get stronger quickly if I want to keep dueling you.”

Yuuto ends up being the last opponent Shun duels in order to qualify for the WDC himself, but as the Solid Vision field descends all around them, Shun realizes it doesn’t even matter whether he wins or loses. Yuuto’s dragon flies up and into the sun, and Shun’s falcons follow in pursuit, and as the duelists turn their faces to the sky to watch the battle, the smile that lights Yuuto’s face is like sunlight.

 

 

 

Shun is fourteen, and someone’s installed a Solid Vision arena in the park under the cherry blossom tree. It’s quickly being overrun by duelists from all over the city who want to test out the new Continuous Magics programmed into the system. _Field Spell – Hanafubuki_ turns out to be a blizzard of falling flower petals that hide the names of monsters and cuts attack accuracy to 50%.

When Shun and Yuuto finally get a turn, Shun tries to fiddle around with the settings: Yuuto’s still in Junior class and he doesn’t want him to get hurt. But Yuuto says he doesn’t mind. He’ll be moving up to the Junior Youth category next year anyway, so he wants to get used to it. (Ruri is also watching, so Shun thinks that it’s probably also a little bit because Yuuto wants to be impressive.)

He ends up winning, because Shun’s birds get blinded by the flowers and none of his attacks manage to connect. When the duel ends, the Field Magic vanishes like snow in spring, and Yuuto’s smile as Shun runs over to shake his hand is as bright as the victory.

 

 

 

Shun is fifteen, and the forces from Academia arrive like rain from a hole in the sky. They set fire to the city and they take Ruri, and in the park where all the duelists in the city used to gather, the trees have all turned grey from the ashes of Heartland burning.

People say that if a duelist’s wishes are strong enough, even the cards themselves will change in response to their heart. Yuuto’s knights have all turned into phantoms, and their spirits hover now like untold secrets over the broken remains of the arena in the park where the cherry blossoms used to fall. Now the flowers are only grey, and as Yuuto reaches out to touch them, ash rolls off the petals like rain.

“I used to think the flowers were beautiful. But then I learned that they live by feeding on the corpses buried beneath them.”

Yuuto has always been kind, but kindness can’t exist in a world like this. Every time they dueled under the falling flowers, Shun had always wanted to reach across the game mat or the table or the dueling field and take Yuuto’s hand and say, “Please, I want to play against you forever.” Now, he thinks, he never will.

 

 

 

Shun is sixteen, and he’s chased The Professor to the dimension called Standard where the trail goes cold. There are no flowers here, only long roads and tall buildings, and without Yuuto by his side the force of his anger tears through Maiami City as if it were only paper.

Nothing makes sense here. Fusion is used here, but so is Xyz. Yuuto entrusts the burden of smiles not to Shun, but to Sakaki Yuuya, the boy from Standard whom he hardly knows and who looks just like him. Shun goes along with Akaba Reiji’s plan and duels in the Maiami Championships, the Synchro Underground, the Friendship Cup, and tries to remember that time when dueling had once been a reason to smile.  Those days that once were and must be again.

The day they are due to cross into Synchro, Shun pulls Sakaki Yuuya aside and hands him a single flower, which he’d plucked from where it grew between the bricks on the entranceway to the LDS. It’s not delicate or pretty, and its petals are white, not pink. But Yuuya takes it anyway, and as the flower unfurls in the palm of his hand Shun thinks, that boy’s smile really is just like his.

 

 

 

 


End file.
